Sunday, December 21, 2008

San Jose DA conceals evidence disproving child abuse

Amid the discovery of videotapes from thousands of medical examinations of children in sex-abuse cases that had been withheld for years, the nurse who conducted those examinations has testified under oath that local prosecutors have long known she was taping the procedures.

Her former boss, the doctor who oversaw the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center unit, agrees the videotaping was no secret. He said he made the decision to keep the tapes from defense attorneys, at least in part, because they could have hampered prosecutions by "muddying" the evidence.

This is a followup to this story. Yes, it muddies the evidence when videotapes show that the parents are innocent of child abuse. It makes it harder for the prosecutors to take the kids away.

Not only did the DAs conceal the videotapes, they are still trying to conceal news about their misbehavior:

Last week, officials in the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office denied Ritter's contention. Chief Assistant District Attorney Marc Buller at one point called a reporter to insist that the deposition of Ritter was supposed to be confidential and that the reporter potentially faced jail for writing about the deposition. But no protective order, which would be needed to make the deposition confidential, was ever issued.

Apparently these goons are so used to avoiding scrutiny for their misdeeds that they thought that they could bully a newspaper reporter into silence.

The jail threat sounds pretty crazy, but I was convicted of contempt of court in a similar situation. I reported on this blog about testimony that was given without any protective order or any other claim of confidentiality. The only reason to keep quiet about the testimony was to avoid embarrassment for govt officials who were taking kids away without just cause or due process. And yet I was found in contempt, and I am scheduled to be sentenced next month to up to five days in jail.